The former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee could have been saved if he was rushed to a hospital in time. Unfortunately, he was against being admitted in a hospital.
Doctors, who used to treat the former CM regularly either in the critical care unit (CCU) in a private hospital in the Alipore area or at his Palm Avenue residence, felt that the 80-year-old veteran politician could have been saved this time if he was taken to the hospital soon after he got any viral infection.
“He could have been saved this time too if he was rushed to our hospital within a day after he got viral infections. But he was against admission in a hospital,” Dr Soutik Panda, critical care expert, who along with others, used to treat Buddhadeb at the CCU of a private hospital.
“I have been treating him in the CCU of our hospital since 2019 when he fell ill critically with severe respiratory distress. Earlier, we have attended to him and brought him out of danger at least four times. This time, I called up Meera madam (Buddhadeb’s wife) a couple of days ago, when I came to know that he had some viral illness with his COPD problem,” Dr Panda said.
“I requested madam to bring him to our hospital but he was not willing to come. He was very adamant and stuck to his stand on getting treated at his residence. Hospital treatment is essential to save a patient like him,” Dr Panda added.
“With his death, an era has come to an end. He was a man of strong personality with a heart. He used to bless all of us during his discharge from our hospital,” he added.
Dr Somnath Maiti, who was Buddhadeb’s family physician for the past six years, said, “I was there, beside him at the last moment when he breathed his last at 8.20 am today. There was no scope to give him a new lease of life because his oxygen saturation level came down drastically.”
“Yesterday, when I saw him at his residence, his health parameters were almost normal and I could not find anything abnormal that he would leave us the next morning,” Dr Maiti said.